Queen of Peaches

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I’ll Follow You: On Scent and Soap with Hayley J. Croom of Paintbox Soapworks

This week I am absolutely thrilled to be in conversation with Hayley J. Croom of Paintbox Soapworks.

(You can stream our chat via the embed here or pretty much anywhere else you source your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and Google Podcasts.)

Queer, witchy, feminist, and leftist-owned since 2009, Paintbox Soapworks is devoted to making small batch soaps, skincare, and bath products in unique and irreverent scents. It’s a one-person show, and each product is made by hand using vegan friendly, coconut-free custom formulas with no SLS, parabens, or phthalates. Their goal is to get you clean and smelling amazing, and to work a little magic with every blend they make to transform and transport you. 

In our wide-ranging conversation, we chat about the origins of Hayley’s business and how they were “tenderly bullied” into opening their first online storefront; the influence of jazz on their scent blends; how they react when people say to them, “I think about you in the shower every day”; the risks and rewards of being a business owner who is very honest and personal on social media; being on the lookout for the witchcraft that already exists in their work; and crying about a bar of soap in a parking lot.

Perfume and just scented products in general have been a real love and hobby of mine for, gosh, about 15 years now, and usually I have no one to talk to about it! Well, other than through blog posts and comments of the folks I’ve become acquainted with online through the amazingly supportive and generous perfume community that exists on social media. But as far as actual person-to-person conversations, it’s rare for me. So I let this one go a little long and expansive! And, you’re definitely going to want to check out the show notes below, because there’s a ton of links for Hayley’s products there as well as where and how to find the other indie soap and scent creators that they’re in community with. 

SHOW NOTES

Headshot by Digital Ephemera Photography.

Find Hayley and Paintbox Soapworks online:

All the Paintbox Soapworks scent blends mentioned in this episode:

  • Orange and Yellow: A sun-blind dazzle of citrus: lemons, oranges, clementines, ruby grapefruit, yuzu, & bergamot, with a flicker of thyme & frankincense.
  • Fantasticake! Decadent butter rum cake soaked in fragrant orange syrup, slathered in rich cream cheese icing.
  • Secrets of the Sun: Rich Indonesian patchouli, musky honey, wild honeysuckle, gardenia, sun-warmed skin.
  • Lemony Biscuit: Tart lemon cream cookies with freshly ground nutmeg & a touch of lemon thyme.
  • Pussy Hat: Hot pink grapefruit juice poured into a copper vat of boiling sugar.
  • Illuminated Dick Joke: A proud shaft of ruddy cedar & cypress showered in orange blossom honey & red musk, gilded with amber.
  • Hex on the Beach: Writhing, shea-rubbed bodies casting fevered shadows against blazing firelight on a midnight shore.
  • Sweet Love Hangover: A frankly inappropriate morning-after blend of tender pancakes spread with whipped maple butter, dripping in sweet cherry topping, with a sexy nibble of spiced oud.
  • The Golden Orb: A radiant mug of scalded milk & wildflower honey, warming ginger, turmeric, & a ray of smoked sandalwood.
  • Green Lemon: New for 2024! Official description still to come!
  • The Sword and the Eastern Sky: The scent of clarity, focus, & a powerful new day: olive blossom, frankincense, dry tea leaves, & an airy lavender & amber chypre.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and the BPAL.org forum. Elizabeth Barrial is the founder of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

Ethiopian Diamond restaurant in Chicago

The I’ll Follow You episode with Sadie Teper

Nuri McBride and her legendary Notion portfolio

Sihaya and Company and their delightful seasonal boxes (scroll down here for the description of their Autumn 2022 Dark Academia box)

The Paintbox Soapworks Karen Rose collection

The Paintbox Soapworks Celtic Knot Works collection

Shawn Fink

Witchcraft Off the Beaten Path with Molly Dyer

Here’s that amazing beach bonfire scene from the film Portrait of a Lady on Fire:

The BBC Radio 4 program Mythical Creatures

The Playful Heart Tarot deck

This Might Hurt tarot deck

Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE)

Isabella Rotman